Chapter 4 - the nurse in room twelve)
Rebecca searched the hospital logos visible in the photographs until two in the morning.
At two seventeen, she found it.
St. Catherine Medical Center.
Twenty six miles away.
At seven, Rebecca drove there.
She left Mia with her friend Sophie, the only person she trusted enough not to call Daniel.
Sophie asked no questions until Rebecca handed her the diaper bag.
Then she touched Rebecca's wrist.
"Are you safe?"
Rebecca looked at Mia.
"I don't know."
At St. Catherine, the receptionist refused to discuss patient records.
Rebecca showed the photograph of Lena.
"Can I speak to this nurse?"
The receptionist looked closer.
"That's Lena."
"Is she working?"
"Tonight."
Rebecca returned at seven thirty.
Lena recognized the photograph before Rebecca finished explaining.
Her face changed.
"Where did you get that?"
"My husband had it."
Lena glanced toward the security desk.
"What's his name?"
"Daniel Carter."
Nothing.
Rebecca almost felt disappointed.
Then she showed another photograph.
Daniel's profile was visible.
Lena stopped breathing.
"That man."
"You know him?"
Lena looked at Rebecca.
"What is the child's real name?"
"Mia."
Lena's eyes closed.
"How old?"
"Two."
"Is she safe?"
Rebecca could barely speak.
"I don't know."
Lena led her into a consultation room.
"Last week a man brought in a little girl around two in the morning. He said her name was Lily Bennett. He said she was his daughter."
Rebecca's stomach twisted.
"What was wrong with her?"
"She was lethargic. Hard to wake. He claimed she'd gotten into his anxiety medication."
Rebecca covered her mouth.
"We don't have anxiety medication in our house."
Lena's expression hardened.
"That's why I remember him."
"What happened?"
"We ran initial tests. There was evidence of a sedating medication. The physician wanted to admit her overnight."
Rebecca stared.
"But?"
"He became agitated."
"Daniel?"
"He said he had another hospital he preferred. Then he tried to leave."
"With her?"
"Yes."
"Did you stop him?"
"We delayed discharge while social work was contacted."
Rebecca's chest tightened.
"What happened?"
"A fire alarm went off on the second floor. Not a real fire. Someone pulled the alarm."
Rebecca stared at her.
"No."
"During the evacuation confusion, he disappeared with the child."
Rebecca stood so quickly the chair scraped backward.
"We have to call the police."
"I already reported the incident."
"Then why didn't anyone find him?"
"The address he gave was false. The phone was prepaid. The insurance card was under another name."
Rebecca whispered, "Lily Bennett."
Lena nodded.
Rebecca felt faint.
Lena reached across the table.
"Sit."
Rebecca did not.
"Was she hurt?"
"No obvious trauma. But she was too sleepy."
"Could that medication have killed her?"
"Depending on what she took and how much, yes."
Rebecca began crying without realizing it.
Lena waited.
Then Rebecca asked the question that terrified her.
"Why would he do that?"
Lena did not answer.
She could not.
But she told Rebecca something else.
Daniel had not arrived alone.
A woman had been with him.
Only briefly.
She left before registration was complete.
"Who?"
"I don't know."
"What did she look like?"
"Late fifties maybe. Blonde. Expensive coat. She and Daniel argued."
"About what?"
"I only heard one sentence."
Rebecca leaned forward.
Lena hesitated.
"She said, 'You were supposed to make Rebecca look dangerous, not kill the child.'"
Rebecca went completely still.
The room seemed to shrink.
Lena continued.
"Daniel told her to shut up."
Rebecca's thoughts became fragments.
Make Rebecca look dangerous.
Not kill the child.
This was not random.
Not panic.
Not an accident.
A plan.
Someone wanted Rebecca blamed.
"Did she call him Daniel?"
"No."
"What name?"
Lena thought.
"I think she called him Danny."
Rebecca knew only one person who called Daniel that.
May you like
His mother.
The mother Daniel claimed had been dead for seventeen years.
